ATP TENNIS: ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
[10] David Goffin (BEL) vs. [79] Jannik Sinner (ITA)
The eighteen-year-old Italian, with the interesting last name, continues to impress in the 2020 season. The youngest male player in the top hundred, who won his biggest title last year at the Next Gen Finals got off to a slow start this season but seems to be warming up quite nicely.
Sinner Faces Tough Challenge
His big challenge today was to defeat a top ten opponent. They had never played before and Goffin as the number four seed was expected to secure the victory. Goffin started off breaking the teenager early. Surely, the higher ranked opponent would cruise to win the set; yet, tennis reminds us often that confidence is a fickle thing. While we can ponder how is it possible that a top ten player would lose his confidence after taking a lead against a lower ranked player? We need to remember that confidence is strengthened by recent results. Goffin has not been the dominant player he once was, injury played a role in destroying that. He has also struggled to perform at a high level consistently and his recent loss to [132] Vasek Pospisil (CAN) is still probably causing him some psychological discomfort.
Fearless Teenager Upsets Goffin
Sinner, the teenager, is fearless and as the young often do, he shrugged off the early break and got right back into playing quality tennis. Once the initial nerves were dispelled, he was the better player in both sets. He seemed more confident and his opponent appeared more unsure that he could win this match. The second set was almost a repeat of the first, Goffin broke early again. However, this time, he could not control the doubts long enough to force a tiebreaker and perhaps give himself a chance to get back into the match. Playing fearless tennis, Sinner attacked every ball with ferocity and in the end, there was not much Goffin could do to avoid the 7-6(7), 7-5 defeat. With this victory, the Italian gets his first top ten victory and is into the quarterfinals in Rotterdam.
SOURCE OF IMAGES: Zimbio.com (Getty Images AsiaPac)
